English Reading

Hello! We are the reading coordinators at Sherdley.

Mrs Roberts looks after Early Reading, covering Pre-school, Reception and Key Stage 1.

Mrs Clayton is in charge of Reading in Key Stage 2.

Early Reading

My name is Mrs Roberts and I am one of the Reception Teachers in our Early Years Team. I an an experienced teacher,  and have taught at Sherdley since 2004. Over the last 18 years I have taught all of the year groups in Early Years and Key Stage 1. I have been the Early Reading Lead 2019, having previously worked in the Science Team, covered the Senco role and coordinated RE. I work closely with our Phonics lead Mrs Baxter, and our Enlgish coordinator Mrs Orbison. 

At Sherdley, we value reading as a crucial life skill.  We encourage our children to see themselves as readers for both pleasure and purpose. We believe that all our children can become fluent readers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching the phonics programme in Pre-school and follow their  progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read as they move through school.

In Pre-school the children share high-quality stories and poems and learn a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes. Their listening and attention skills are developed through  focussed activities including oral blending. We ensure that our Pre-school children are ready for more formal reading activities when they start school.

In Reception, the children start their phonics sessions after the introductory 2 weeks. We build from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to 30 minutes lessons as quickly as possible. Daily lessons continue in Year 1, and for any children who have not acheived the standard in the Phonics Screening Check, in Year 2.

We teach children to read through reading practice sessions three times a week, using our beautiful Little Wandle books. These decodable reading practice books are  taken home at the end of the week to ensure success is shared with the family. Children from Pre-school up also take a reading for pleasure book home each week, for parents to share and read to children. In Year 2 we continue to teach reading in this way for any children who still need to practise reading with phonics, whilst children who have passed the Phonics Screening Check are moved onto our levelled Reading Scheme books as appropriate.

Key Stage Two Reading 

My name is Mrs Clayton and I am the Key Stage 2 reading co-ordinator at Sherdley Primary School. I joined the school in September 2016 and have previously been the History co-ordinator and involved within the Maths team to improve outcomes for our disadvantaged children. My role within the English team began in 2021. I lead on improving reading fluency and comprehension in KS2. 

As our children move into KS2, they build on the phonics and fluency they have developed as an early reader. Reading is particularly important so they can access all areas of our curriculum as well as developing lifelong skills. By the time our children leave us, they read confidently for meaning and regularly enjoy reading for pleasure. Our readers are equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary and make inferences of texts they have read through daily reading sessions. Reading is celebrated in our school through themed days including World Book Day. We reward our children with golden coins to select a book prize from our very own ‘Brenda the book Vendor’. We encourage our children to read at home every school night. Our regular readers are rewarded with ‘Bookworm reading champion’ badges.  

I support the teachers in our school to closely track the progress of their children. I offer help and advice to teachers so they can deliver high quality teaching and learning of reading for their class. I support staff in providing interventions for those children who struggle. I enjoy speaking to our children about their favourite books and authors and I have a passion for making reading a priority in our school.  

If you would like to know more about reading at Sherdley Primary School, please contact me. From September 2022, I will be on Maternity leave. Mrs Schreiber will be overseeing my role as Key Stage 2 co-ordinator and monitoring whilst I am busy with baby. 

Files to Download